KKR vs SRH Match Prediction: Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are out of the playoff race in the current season of IPL. They will face Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday. Pat Cummins’ team is also out of the playoff race. This is KKR’s last match, so the team would like to end the season with a win. The 68th match of IPL 2025 will be played at Arun Jaitley Stadium.
Hyderabad would also like to end the campaign with a win
Call it ironic that when KKR and SRH played their last match of IPL 2024, it was the final match where Shreyas Iyer’s team defeated Pat Cummins’ team in a one-sided match. Both teams will face the challenge of finishing their campaign in sixth place. SRH will have a slight upper hand in the match. This team defeated RCB by 42 runs on Friday night. KKR played their last match in the league against Chennai Super Kings at Eden Gardens on May 7. Pat Cummins would like to end this season with a win. His strong batting line-up comprising Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen and Aniket Verma would like to enjoy the perfect batting conditions at the Kotla ground here.
All four playoff teams decided
Ajinkya Rahane’s team was to play against RCB on May 17. This was the first match after the league was suspended for a week. However, rain in Bangalore completely ended that match as well as KKR’s slight hopes of reaching the playoffs. All four playoff spots have been decided, so this match is just a formality but both teams will be motivated to end the league on a happy note. This will give both teams a chance to decide the team’s outline for the next season and assess the performance of the current season.
Venkatesh Iyer’s bat remained silent
The biggest disappointment for KKR this season was their most expensive player all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer. The franchise spent Rs 23.75 crore for this batsman but he could score only 142 runs in 11 matches. During this time, he scored 60 runs in one match and if that innings is removed, then this left-handed batsman has only 82 runs in 10 matches. He did not even bowl in this season, so questions are bound to be raised about the amount spent on him in the big IPL auction.
Rahane impressed
KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane is their best batsman with 375 runs in the season. At the same time, in the presence of batsmen like Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Rinku Singh, Rahane has hit the most sixes for the team. He has 20 sixes to his name while Narine and Russell have hit 16 and 14 sixes respectively. Russell and Rinku’s failure to consistently hit big shots between 16 and 20 overs also cost the team dearly.
KKR vs SRH: Probable playing 11
Kolkata Knight Riders: Sunil Narine, Quinton de Kock (wicketkeeper), Ajinkya Rahane, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Ramandeep Singh, Moeen Ali, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakraborty.
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Abhishek Sharma, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen (wicketkeeper), Aniket Verma, Abhinav Manohar, Pat Cummins, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Shami, Adam Zampa.
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